“The important thing is that everyone is alive,” Debby said, defusing the situation.
A worried Van came down from above:
“Are you all right?”
“Help us to get to the Emperor’s quarters,” Dandin asked, still lowering his gaze. “We will have to walk from here.”
“Oh yes,” Van said, “let’s go. Come with me.”
Jean-Pierre hummed, clapped Dandin on the shoulder and followed Van. The doctor looked at Dandin with compassion. David signaled for everyone to go forward and walked over to Dandin himself. Yulia and Debby joined Van and Jean-Pierre. The Sun dweller’s face was still flaming with shame.
“Don’t worry,” said David, “in our world women do the same to us. You know how many times I’ve blushed in my life,” David laughed.
Dandin looked up with a smile.
“Thank you,” he accepted David’s words.
The doctor turned to him. He decided to distract the young man with questions about the world they were now in. They followed the others.
“What effect do women have on you?”
“They…” Dandin searched for the right words, “I don’t know, it’s like I’ve lost air. Like I was melting.”
“I thought you were all made out of fire,” David said.
“Not as you thought,” Dandin said, even more cheerfully. “Higher the world – finer the bodies.”
“Is the Sun higher than the Earth?” David asked in surprise.
“Yes and no,” Dandin smiled. “The Sun is thinner. We can see you, even if it is difficult, you cannot see us. Your eyesight is different.”
“What do you mean by different?” Dr Capri clarified.
“You see mainly reflected light, we see what is the source of light.”
Dr Capri thought for a moment as he looked at the palace beyond the wall. The travelers, led by the soaring Van, walked parallel to the high fence, behind which was the king’s dwelling. On the other side of the road, the buildings were piled on top of each other. Narrow streets spread out from the main street in small streams. The doctor noticed that the color of the material used to make the roads and buildings changed: waves of energy spread out from the palace, making the color of everything around it brighter. It was as if the city was breathing with energy emanating from the center. The city looked alive, but there was no one in the streets or in the windows of the houses.
“If everything is so beautiful here,” David asked in a more serious tone, “why did you kick Van out when he became sad?”